Stolen wallet returned 8 years later with $141 cash still inside

A Boston woman's stolen wallet resurfaced eight years later with all of its original contents intact. Screenshot: WCVB-TV

March 23 (UPI) -- A Boston woman whose wallet was stolen in 2009 said she was shocked to get it back -- and even more shocked to see it still contained all of her cash.

Nursing student Courtney Connolly said the wallet was taken out of her car during a summer internship in Wellfleet, Mass., in 2009, and somehow during the ensuing eight years the wallet found its way back to Boston, where it ended up in the hands of a police officer Monday.

The police officer used a pay stub in the wallet to track down Connolly's family and handed the wallet over to her sister-in-law.

Connolly said it was a shock to discover the wallet was exactly as it had been when it was taken.

"The cash was never used! The credit cards were never used! My social security number was never used!" Connolly told WFXT-TV.

"Yes, it's literally like it fell out of my pocket yesterday," she told WCVB-TV.

Connolly said the wallet even still had a fortune cookie message taped to the inside: "Soon you'll receive pleasant news."

The fortune proved true in multiple ways -- the $141 that sat untouched in the wallet for eight years is the exact amount Connolly said she needs to enter an upcoming powerlifting tournament.

"Ironically as soon as I get the wallet back, the next day I learned I actually passed my anatomy test! Which I had studied really hard for! So it's the little things that keep jumping out at me and surprising me," she said.

"I really hope if anyone can take anything from this: is not to lose hope in the good things that life has to offer," Connolly said.